Chance to Support Ukraine’s 54,000 Handicapped Children

A center has for the first time been established in Ukraine to provide comprehensive help, including social, psychological, and pedagogical support, to families raising a mentally handicapped child. The center has two branches in Kyiv’s Desniansk and Darnytsia districts, the former being housed at the largest local children’s outpatient hospital and the latter in a former day nursery until recently used as a playground for the Darnytsia disabled. It is noteworthy that the new institution has been set up by the joint efforts of an international organization (UNICEF), a state-run facility (Kyiv Youth Social Service), and a non-governmental organization (Dzherela {Sources} Charity). The new center’s branches will employ a legal advisor, speech therapist, teacher, and social worker. There will also be a wealth of mental development toys that the young clients can borrow to take home.

There are about 300,000 mentally handicapped persons, including almost 54,000 under the age of fifteen, currently registered by Ukraine’s Public Health Service. Chief Child Psychiatrist at Kyiv’s General Public Health Department Liudmyla Lytvyn told The Day’s correspondent that many mothers, unable to control their depression and guilt concerning their defective child, are at first not fully aware of their own problems, which make some of them wary of turning to a psychiatrist for help, while those who do so are not always prepared to believe the doctor and thus cause great harm to their child, denying the latter the treatment he or she needs.

Raisa Kravchenko, chairperson of the Dzherela Society, claims that all kinds of mentally retarded people need well-organized assistance oriented toward making use of their existing intellectual capabilities. Culture is the main sphere capable of making up for deficiencies, while a mentally retarded person constantly needs some type of intellectual exercises. This must be an uninterrupted process involving many experts.